Frank Lloyd Wright Homes of Beverly / Chicago

Beverly is a gorgeous section of Chicago about ten miles south of the loop. It has a historic district full of huge homes and has some of what is rare in Chicago elevated land. It is also home to four Frank Lloyd Wright homes. We were recently in Beverly and made a walking tour of the Wright homes we have posted some clips on our ChiTownView YouTube station. In addition we are adding them to our collection of Chicago area Wright designs

Our first stop was on Hoyle where there are two of his mass market American System-Built homes. Just before WW1 Wright went into business with a Wisconsin developer to market pre-designed home kits aimed at the middle class market. All the lumber was delivered precut and the workers were provided to erect them. Only a few were built and then the war came along diverting building materials and Wright had a falling out with his partner.

The two homes on Hoyle are about a block apart and were built in 1917. They are designated Chicago landmarks and were to be part of an entire subdivision of the Wright designs. It is still an area that is filled with beautiful homes and is great for strolling around in. We have clips of the other two homes they are a little further north in the more exclusive section of Beverly. Anybody that is visiting the Wright homes in Oak Park may want to spend an afternoon here too.


Our second stop is at 9914 Longwood perched on top of the Blue Island ridge that towers over this historic drive. The Evans house, built in 1908, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The home is very impressive, sitting on a large tract of land with a modern sculpture in front. The original stucco coating was removed and the house recovered with artificial stone.

The block that the house is on also has some other impressive homes that we show in a companion video to this one for those that are interested. In our third clip we travel a little further north to another Wright home on Pleasant St.

The third stop on our Wright/Beverly tour takes us to the William and Jessie Adams house at 9326 Pleasant. It is a spacious home and a fine example of his prairie school design style. It is located on another block full of beautiful homes.

If you want to check out Beverly here's a little guide to the area. http://www.explorechicago.org/city/en/neighborhoods/beverly.html


This series is presented by ChiTownView & produced byMindsiMedia. We have several channels on YouTube and other video sharing outlets you can access all of them from our web portal at http://www.mindsimedia.info/

   

"Crazy Spitting Lady" Funny Video of the Week.

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Cermak Plaza Sign Restored & Two Other Neon Classics

I decided tonight to take a ride down to Berwyn/Cicero there was a neat little hot dog stand called Henry's that had a old neon sign I wanted to film. I drove down Harlem Ave. and discovered that the old neon sign at Cermak Plaza had been restored. I stopped and shot that before moving on to Henry's which is on old route 66 which is Ogden Ave. out this way. At Henry's I had an excellent chili dog and enjoyed the old photos they have on the wall. On my way home I was glad to see the old Elks Club sign at Ridgeland and 26th was still working. Sadly the Eagles Club sign a couple of blocks down was almost burnt out.

The Taxi Dance "Hood" Joints of Summit Il.

Earlier this month our tour of Chicago crime hot spots took us out west along Rt 66 to Summit Il. we uploaded this on Apr 18, 2012 by ChiTownView

 

Following the demise of Chicago's quasi legal vice district The Levee vice which had been contained to one area spread across the entire county. Then once Johnny Torrio began expanding his control over crime in Chicago these areas became part of his empire. Which Capone inherited and expanded.

Cicero was a well known haven of sin and vice but just a little bit further west we find Summit another one time haven of sin and vice. Populated by a number of what my dad used to call "hood" (short for hoodlum) joints. As your travling west down old route 66 (Ogden Ave) and come to Harlem Ave. where you turn left. Just a couple of blocks south at 3958 S. Harlem Marshalls now stands where the infamous Silver Slipper once stood. The Slipper was owned by "Tough" Tony Capezio

This is where the first of three "dance halls" we're visiting today once stood. A dance hall of the 20's-40's was the kind of place that put the dirt in dirty dancing. For a small sum a guy could have a dance with a young lady. What kind of dance and for how long all depended on how much the mark had to spend. Booze and gambling were all part of the scene as well. And if you should run out of money well there's guys who can help you with that.

A couple of blocks down the road from the Slipper was the home of two Capone joints. In the 1920's The Harlem House was on the east side of the street. It was so notorious and raided so many times that it was closed and the building raised. So they opened right across the street The Harlem Nut House. It was another clip joint.

Then go back up north a block to Pershing road and go back east into Summit down a quarter mile to Oak Park Ave. and you'll find where once stood the Rendzvous Club. This was located not far from city hall and the police station. To make it easier for the corrupt officials like mayor William C. Loeffler and police chief Louis Marek to get their payoffs one guesses. Those days have long passed and the old joints are gone now.

The Loop Vice Tour Pt. 3, Custom House Place & The Franklin Building

Published on May 1, 2012 by ChiTownView

In Chicago everything started downtown then wealth moved north and vice was moved further and further south. The Sands was Chicago's first vice district and as the land that resided on became more desirable the vice had to move. Chicago as a frontier town that got real big has always tolerated a degree of sanctioned vice. Until the first mayor Daley. Anyway after the Sands the vice moved down to Madison and Wells which we covered in the previous clip. By the late 1880's the Dearborn St. train station opened in the south loop and the area just north of that became the new vice area. Both Dearborn and Custom House Place were full of saloons, gambling dens and whore houses. Custom House Place was notorious for it's panel houses where suckers were lured in by women and then while they were occupied an accomplice would gain access to the room through hidden sliding doors and panels and rob the mark.

Like the other quasi legal vice districts Custom House existed for about a decade or two before being moved on further south until reaching it's grand conclusion at the Levee. This is the area a little further south near Chinatown that became one of the worlds most famous red light districts. It also cemented in place an unofficial alliance between government and "the underworld" that lasted for decades.

This area has been designated a national landmark not for it's sporting houses but for it also being the hub of the publishing industry and it is widely known as Printers Row. Lured by the same access to transportation that drew the criminal element it grew into one of the world centers of printing. The Franklin Company was one of the dozens of publishers in the area and the building we show at the corner of Dearborn and Polk is the second they had in the area and operated between 1912-1983. The gorgeous panel above door and along the front, depicts the Gutenberg printing house.

The video presented here is part of ChiTownView series Chicago Crime / Now & Then. We show what Chicago's infamous locations and gruesome crime scenes look like today and in the video description telling some of that history with each clip. From it's earliest days Chicago has been a hotbed of sin corruption and vice and those who controlled held money, power and influence. From the first whorehouses across the river from Ft. Dearborn to Big Mike Mc Donald, Hinky Dink & Bathhouse the "Lords of the Levee, Big Jim Colosimo, Al Capone, Paul Ricca, Sam Giancana and countless others the story of Chicago is in many ways the story of vice and corruption and the fight against it.

A Moment For Beauty ?

My Beautiful Visions is a new YouTube station from MindsiMedia. We are an internet broadcaster presenting video and music through YouTube and Pandora since 2007. We are a one person operation working this in with a couple of part time jobs and other projects. This year marks our fifth anniversary. We have a half dozen stations on YouTube with over a thousand videos and more than three million views.

We began as a mixture of public domain and self produced material focusing mainly on art music and neon. Since then we have explored a wide range of topics; from the art of Salvador Dali to the crimes of the Bush family. The history of organized crime in Chicago and the real truth about 9/11. From the homes of Frank Lloyd Wright to vintage motorcycle stunts and more. Now as we mark our fifth anniversary we begin a new station. One where the focus is on beauty. While this has always been a part of MindsiMedia's “vision” this station will put it front and center. This is how the idea came about.

A Moment For Beauty ?

I was going through some video selections of my subscribers. One of them was a clip from a style expert named Miss Louie. Who is an online fashion reporter. Something about her smile in the thumbnail made me click on a video of her modeling clothes from Target. So I'm sitting there watching it saying to myself, this is a beautiful woman. And then thinking how often do you stop to admire someone or something that is beautiful?

Stopping my mad rush to not be informed, entertained or in some other way satisfied but just to appreciate a moment of beauty. It's a chance for peace, relaxation and meditation. And isn't that a thing that most of us could use?

At first I thought about starting a You Tube station devoted to beautiful women. But there's a lot of those out there, it's a tad obsessional, besides beauty is a little deeper than that and I wanted the station to have broad appeal. So I expanded my view to all the moments that I find beauty in. That is how My Beautiful Visions begins and it is where I will present my daily quest to uncover a moment of beauty. Not that I will be uploading a video a day but I will be looking more for those little moments to capture.

We welcome your viewership but we would really appreciate your input. One of our first playlists will be Your Beautiful Visions where your clips could be posted. And that's pretty much it for right now. It's spring and the flowers are in bloom. I've been out walking the past couple of days and have posted a couple of clips. Besides that we have some playlists and favorites collected. Stop by and check us out.

Naked Nymphs on North Clark Street? Architectural Ornaments In Andersonville

I recently took advantage of a spectacular spring day to walk around the Andersonville neighborhood on Chicago's far north side. While going up Clark I stopped to take a video of the Calo Theater building. It now houses a resale shop and what used to be a bank now is Hamburger Mary but the building still retains most of it's  ornamental terra-cotta ornamentation. Including the above mentioned nymphs.